There are views and there are views.
There are landscapes that stun because of their colour or their depth. There are vistas boasting immaculate reflections.
There are panoramas so striking that two eyes are too few to take them in. Tony Blair once spoke of eating the view, it was that good.
And then there are stretches of mud, sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on the tide.
One stretch is found in the Severn Estuary and is best seen from Newport Wetlands, a new reserve created under European law when wetlands elsewhere were lost for construction of the Cardiff barrage.
This stretch of mud is no ordinary scene, nor is it ordinary mud. Much of it is saltmarsh, highlighted by Natural England yesterday as important but disappearing wildlife habitat.
And much of it lies within the numerous Sites of Special Scientific Interest along the estuary’s banks and within the Severn Estuary Special Protection Area - a zone safeguarded by the strongest and most effective environmental law in the world.
From Newport Wetlands you can see the estuary at its best. Beyond the mud, Flatholm and Steepholm – hummocks of land poking from estuary waters – are clearly visible.
Further upstream, the estuary divides to become the rivers Usk and Wye - the routes salmon and eel take to spawning grounds.
Closer to the estuary banks, a little egret walks with poise and purpose, cautiously extending one spindly leg into a mud pool. Nearby, a grey plover, resplendent in black and silver breeding plumage, seeks out its next aquatic meal.
Some views take your breath. The appreciation of others is not so immediate, especially if much of it is mud.
It will cost £15 billion to build a 10-mile barrage across the Severn, drowning much of its saltmarshes and irreparably damaging other invaluable muddy habitats used by wading birds and wildfowl.
New sites will be created but there will be no compensation for the loss of this view. The mud of the Severn is too glorious.